2019 \ Mar 14-Apr 14
La Ronde
a pas de deux of class and carnality
By Arthur Schnitzler
Translated By Eric Bentley
Directed By Ariel Craft
Cutting Ball’s new artistic director Ariel Craft helms a refreshed production of La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, in a translation by Eric Bentley.
About the play:
As a young wife kindles a love affair with a society gentleman, who happens to be sleeping with his parlor maid behind closed doors, her husband rendezvouses with a girl from town, who carries on with a bohemian poet after night-fall, though he really longs for another… On and on, partners switch: they meet, bed, and move on to the next. La Ronde, a play told in ten illicit dalliances, is a muscular investigation of sexual response, the performativity of arousal, gratification, kink, trauma, and the identity politics of the bedroom.
Traditionally featuring a cast of ten men and women, Cutting Ball’s La Ronde is performed by two women, exploring gender’s dual forces of power and disempowerment, oppression and liberation. Presented in the round, with audience on all sides of the action, La Ronde examines sex as confrontation and combat, a cage match.
Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes with no intermission
PRESS
"Sex, in Cutting Ball Theater’s La Ronde, looks like the prow of a mighty ship vaulting over one crest after another. It’s a sunbathing butterfly’s wings fanning outward in a bellows’ rhythm. It’s plucking a cascading ribbon out of a partner’s innards or turning an engine’s crank or jackhammering or spearing a giant shish kebab or throat-clearing.
Such is the lavish, inventive, wide-ranging physicality with which director Ariel Craft envisions coitus in Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 play."
- Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle
"Francis and Simon are consummate exhibitionists, giving the audience a feast for the senses."
- Nicole Gluckstern, KQED Arts
"Francis and Simon are excellent physical actors, circling the diamond stage like the boxers in a ring."
-Steve Murray, BroadwayWorld
Ariel Craft (Director) is a Bay Area director, generative theater-maker, and arts administrator. Directing credits include The Mineola Twins and Phèdre (Theatre Bay Area Award, Outstanding Direction of a Play) at Cutting Ball Theater, Dry Land at Shotgun Players, an acclaimed adaptation of Kate Chopin’s feminist novella The Awakening and a radical re-imagining of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding. Ariel has directed for Bay Area companies such as Impact Theatre, The Custom Made Theatre Co., Wily West Productions, the San Francisco Olympians Festival, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. She holds a BFA with Honors from New York University where she studied directing and multidisciplinary theatre-making at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Ariel was awarded an Artistic Fellowship at the American Conservatory Theater following her graduation. Assistant direction credits include American Conservatory Theater’s remount of Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe’s Tony-winning production of The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer and Phantom Limb Company’s 69°S, directed by Sophie Hunter at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ariel was also awarded Theatre Bay Area’s Titan Award.
Ella Ruth Francis (Performer)
is honored to be making her Cutting Ball debut in La Ronde. Past Credits include Romeo and Juliet (Juliet) with both the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Half Moon Bay Shakespeare Company, Grease (Jan) at Berkeley Playhouse and The Merchant of Venice (Nerissa) with PCPA’s Professional Actor Conservatory.
Jeunée Simon (Performer) is a board member with TheatreFIRST where she performed in Hela and Waafrika 1,2,3. Simon has also worked with Central Works Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Foundation, and more. Simon is a proud recipient of the 2017 RHE Artistic Fellowship.
Special
Events
Saturday, March 23
Following the 8pm performance, mingle with the director and cast of La Ronde while sipping our delectable signature cocktail.
Sunday, March 24
Maya Herbsman offers a crash course on the groundbreaking, industry-shaking field of intimacy choreography. Learn more about this emerging art form and see a demonstration of how its done at 1pm, before the 2pm show.
Sunday, March 31
What better way to celebrate La Ronde's salacious subject matter than with a Bacchanal Brunch? Starting at 1pm, meet Artistic Director Ariel Craft for an afternoon of aphrodisiacs, mimosas, and creative conversation to get you in the mood for the 2pm show.
Saturday, April 6
Let's talk about sex! Join the conversation with Dr. Carol Queen, an award-winning sex educator, sexologist, sociologist, and author and Christina Sophie, love and sex coach, at 7pm, before the 8pm performance.
Cutting Ball Theater understands that certain content may not be appropriate for all audiences.
While we strive to engage mindfully and responsibly with sensitive subject matter, we want our patrons to be equipped to decide whether a production's content is right for them. Please be advised that La Ronde contains:
Depictions of sexual acts
Depictions of sexual violence
If you'd like more information about La Ronde's content, please email us at boxoffice@cuttingball.com or call the Box Office at 415-525-1205.